Apple and Rhubarb Tart

This recipe is courtesy of Nessa Robins as seen in her cookery book, Apron Springs. I got the rhubarb for a euro, yeah just a euro, in the People's Park food market in Dun Laoghaire on a Sunday and it was organic, and had come from Wicklow so no long transatlantic journey for those sticks.

It went down a hit with colleagues. A good way to test out a recipe is to make two different things and serve concurrently, then see which gets eaten first. I made this alongside an open jam tart with a pretty trellis pastry finish (it looked much more attractive) but no this tart flew off the plates. No contest.

There my lovely china from Camden Market there in the pic...... OK enough reminiscing.....

You'll need:

Pastry

225g plain flour
25g icing sugar
110g cold butter
1 tablespoon of cold water
1 teaspoon of cinnamon

Filling

6 stalks of rhubarb
A punnet of strawberries
1 tablespoon of cornflour
150g caster sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 egg and dash of milk to glaze tart

23cm round tin

You'll need to.....

Grease and line your tin and preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius

Sieve and icing sugar together two or three times, also add in cinnamon and then rub in the cold butter.

Add in the cold water, adding more if necessary and bring together using a cold knife.

Bring it into a ball, wrap in cling film and keep in fridge for an hour (if you have the time).

Meanwhile wash and chop your fruit.

Remove pastry from fridge and cut in half. Roll out the dough on to a floured counter top and when you have it about 1/4 inch thick lay it into the tin.

Toss in your fruit and sprinkle in the sugar and cornflour and cinnamon.

Roll out the top layer of the tart and lay it on top of the fruit. Putting your hand under the tray and grabbing a knife use the non-cutting side of the knife to whip around the edges and trim. You can use a little cold water on edges to make sure they stick together.

Get a fork and make good deep imprints around the edges and then prick the tart on top in a few places.

Cook for about 45 minutes and then serve with cream and sprinkle some cinnamon and caster sugar over it.



Wash and chop your fruit.

Orange, Strawberry and Melon AND Mango Juice

Now the thing about juicing is that you're basically eliminating all the work your body has to do in digesting and having to extract all the goodness from the fruit or veg, so instead your sending pure liquid fuel directly to your nutrient absorbing pillars in your digestive system.....

Because fruit is all sugar you're injecting loads of sugar.......... straight into your body so it's best to juice vegetables not fruit.......

But in all in anyways a blistering hot day in summer cannot be much further improved than by drinking this juice poured over big, clinking ice cubes.

You'll need......

1/2 punnet of strawberries
2 oranges
1/2 a melon
1 mango (this makes it really smooth)

You'll need to............

Peel the oranges
Wash and hull the strawberries
Skin the melon and remove the seeds
Skin the mango and get slices out of it

Juice them all slowly

Leave in the fridge to cool and pour over ice when serving........